To Steal a Child
by The Curiosity Core
Summary: Snatcher thought she'd just been slacking off. That after almost four contracts, she'd decided to frustrate him more by taking forever on this latest one. But when he hears some distressing news, he finds he has to investigate. / Crossposted from Tumblr. AU, kinda sad, shitty cliffhanger. Oneshot for now.


**Notes**

 _Written in a burst of inspiration after a friend of mine started talking about the AU they came up with, where Queen Vanessa catches Hat Kid, but upon turning her to ice, HK comes out of it as this little ice creature - Hat Kid, but with ice magic, and without her memory. In the AU, she's incredibly fond of Vanessa after she transformation. It's a wonderful AU, and I'd be more than happy to write more in the verse~  
_

 _The ending is shit and cliffhangery, but I guess it leaves room for a second chapter, if the mood ever strikes me._

 **.**

 **1.**  
The kid had been gone for far too long. Normally, Snatcher didn't care one way or the other if his contractees died on the job – But he'd seen this kid in action, had to put up with her for _multiple_ contracts now, which was several contracts longer than usual – most of his contractees barely got past one, let alone _four_ – so the fact that she was lingering so long in this last one… Much as he hated to think it, he was worried.  
She'd been so adept at everything else, so good at avoiding obstacles and keeping alive that he hadn't even _considered_ she could fail – it wasn't even a possibility as he threw this last contract at her. Had she died there? Had she gotten caught like the rest? It worried him.

Still though… It _was_ the kid. Maybe she was just slacking off, gone somewhere else like she usually did. He'd see her eventually, she probably hadn't even _started_ this last contract yet.

He'd give her what for when she came back, though, making him so worried wait so long for her to finish her contractual obligations. Maybe he should come up with another contract in the meantime – he didn't have any more contracts for her, technically, but perhaps he could make her suffer a bit for all this _waiting_ she was making him do.

It was a simple thing for her, he'd thought – just go to the manner, sneak by the crazy old bat, and get the Time Piece he sensed was somewhere at attic level. Snatcher himself couldn't go there – something between old fears from the prince and actual magic that barred him entry. That and he didn't really feel like tussling with the Queen – she could as much sense him as he could her. That was the thing about Subcon magic users, _especially_ him and her. They could feel each other, even after all this time. The only reason he hadn't moved farther away from her territory was because of all the spirits and Subconites that needed him.

Which was why he'd sent the kid. She wasn't from Subcon, so the Queen wouldn't be able to sense her. Not as easily anyways. The kid was foreign, so the Queen wouldn't know what to look for if the kid got noticed.  
Or so he hoped.

For now, though, he'd spend his free time coming up with something to _really_ make the kid regret making him wait.

.

 **2.**

Wherever the kid was, she hadn't left the planet yet. Snatcher could still see the little spot in the sky that was her ship – well, he could see it when Subcon's skyline cleared enough for the stars to show. Which wasn't actually all that often.  
Where _was_ she? He'd already come up with a good way to punish her for making him wait so long, and here he was _still_ waiting on her to come back. Surely she was good enough to sneak past that crazy witch in the manor?

There were rumors swirling, though – he'd heard his minions talking, whispering. The queen had been active lately, wandering and walking and one of them swore he saw her outside the manor once.  
On a patrol through the forest though, one whispering made him pause.

"Don't go near the manor, the queens daughter is really aggressive." Daughter? The queen had no daughter, he had left – so to speak – before any such event could occur. The Prince and Princess hadn't even been _wed_ when she'd locked her husband-to-be in the dungeon!  
Maybe the old bat had finally figured out how her own magic worked – it had been long enough, he'd been wondering for years now if she was actually _doing_ anything in there. From the sounds of it she'd managed to make herself a minion – something like those wretched statues no doubt. A smaller one made of ice, likely; something she could delude herself into thinking was their child. Oh well. That didn't matter to him, as long as she kept to herself and left the forest at large alone – as she'd been doing for decades now – she could think what she wanted.

He had a forest to monitor, Subconites to keep track of, contracts to dole out, and a kid to watch for.

.

 **3.**

If he hadn't stumbled across his minions muttering to themselves, Snatcher didn't think he'd have ever figured out what was going on. They were keeping secrets from him – they hadn't known he was nearby, they never did, but he'd heard them and it made him furious.  
'Don't tell the boss', they'd said as he passed by. Don't tell him what? Angry at the idea that _his_ minions were keeping secrets from him, he erupted into the forest before them, an agitated expression on his face.

"Don't tell me _what_?" He spat at them, little ethereal vines shooting out of the ground and trapping the little subconites where they were as a bubble of shadow dragged them into Snatchers pocket realm. The hooded creatures stumbled and stammered, clearly not wanting to tell him whatever this secret was, until he yelled a threat at them – at which point they seemed to give in.

"The Dwellers have been talking about how they saw the newbie go into Vanessa's manor. They said they never saw her come back out again." Dwellers – the little snakelike spirits with masks on. They tended not to talk, or if they did, only with other dwellers. Most of them couldn't talk at all, except with others of their kind. Finding one willing and able to talk with a non-dweller was hard, mostly because of the previous.  
But that information.

 _They'd seen her go in_. So why wasn't she back yet? She was still under contract, and he could _feel_ the contract was incomplete. So what, had she gone in then _left_? Vanished into nothing?

Wait. _Wait_. The rumors, the ones about the queen having a daughter.

 _Oh no_.

The kid had gone in but not come out. He hadn't seen her in the forest, but the subconites had seen the queen more active than usual, and they had seen a being small enough and feminine enough to be mistaken as being her daughter.

 _The queen had taken the kid_.

.

 **4.**

Damn the witch. He'd sent the kid in thinking the bat would be just as oblivious as usual to intruders – his minions could get in and out easily enough, so the kid logically would be able to as well, right? No, apparently not. She'd gotten herself caught, and the witch must be doing _something_ to keep her there against her will.  
The last time she tried to keep somebody with her that didn't want to be, they had died alone and afraid in the basement.

This wasn't something he'd send them in for, though. No, this required a more delicate touch, more deliberate and knowing. He'd go in himself, steal the kid back, and everything would be right again. He'd send the kid on her way and she'd be traumatized enough that hopefully she'd never come back.  
If she wasn't scared out of her mind by now, he'd absolutely make sure she _was_ by the time he demanded she leave.

And so off he went, charging off in the direction of the Queens manor. It wasn't like the place was hard to find, though – bright white-blue in a forest full of blacks and purples and greens. The closer he got, though, the more he suppressed his magic, compressing his form and making himself smaller and smaller until he was little more than a wisp on the wind, something he could only do for short bursts but would be hopefully able to get in and out without _her_ noticing too early.

He didn't stop to think, didn't stop to observe. This place was dead, frozen, and forgotten. It wasn't important anymore, not to him and not to anyone else. Architecture from _before_ , he knew what it was and where it was from but chose not to think about it. The kid was what he was here for.

It was funny how _intact_ the manor still was after all this time. All this destruction and her damn manor was as spotless as the day she'd killed her prince.

Snatcher, still a tiny wisp, wove around and dove into the open cellar doors. The kid was _his_ , damn it, not the Queens.

.

 **5.**

Snatcher didn't linger in one place long. The energy of the manor dug into him, old buried memories wriggling loose and shaking off the dust and dirt, memories of when this place was bright and lively and _welcoming_. Perhaps he'd strike a deal with the fire spirits and have them burn this place to the ground when he was done here? If there were any left, of course.

A shame he hadn't thought of that before all of this. But then, the Queen might've seen that as an act of war, and come to her senses enough to strike back.

He was almost upset that the kid wasn't in the cellar. Not because he wanted her to hurt the same way the prince had, no, but because it made her harder to find. Where would the queen keep her if not in the cellar? Maybe the _attic_? It was high up and had no escape routes. But then, the kid would have just wriggled free and grabbed the Time Piece he could _still_ feel up there.

It had to be one of the middle floors. The second or the… the _third_. He hated that floor. It made his nonexistent skin _crawl_.

So up he went. Nothing on the first floor, and for a while he almost thought the second was barren too – until he saw the icy blue figure sitting on the queen's ragged bed. Snatcher felt something between despair and rage, she'd _frozen_ the kid and posed her like a _doll_ – but then, she moved.  
Slow and deliberate, the kid moved. What little light came from outside made her form glitter, little flakes of either ice or snow scattering whenever she moved particularly fast. Her eyes were a deep blue – no white to be seen, just… a complete, total blue.

The kid's clothes were different, but if not for her hair and the hat, he wouldn't have known it was her.

Finally letting his form and magic come back in full, Snatcher ignore the distant screeching that was the Queen – third floor by the sound, too far away to stop him – and grabbed the kid by the scruff of her neck, similarly ignoring the child's struggles as he made his way out.  
He would _not_ let the Queen have her.

.

 **6.**

Whatever the Queen had done, Snatcher couldn't reverse it. Not that the kid was making it easy, all her screeching and yelling and biting – she wasn't _nearly_ as human anymore, turning damn near bestial whenever Snatcher tried to touch her. Jagged teeth, nothing but fury in her eyes no matter how much he tried to remind her that she was safe, he was on her side.  
Her memory, it seemed, was gone as well.

No wonder she hadn't come back.

Snatcher had her trapped in the arena for now, locked in one of the many dangling cages. She'd frozen the thing – not that it had helped her escape, mind you – and instead of an umbrella it seemed she had ice magic of her own, now. Little ice spikes grew over her arms when she tried to fight; Snatcher supposed the fact that she lost her _hands_ when she did this was one of precious few upsides he had, right now.

He was in the middle of wondering what would happen if he snapped those ice spikes _off_ when he felt it, though. The aura around Subcon was different. Charged, alive, but more importantly, _terrified_. Dwellers in the sky above him flying in all directions, but there was a pattern. It was _away_. Away from the Manor.  
As soon as he realized that, he could feel her. The Queen wasn't in the manor.

She had _left_. The queen had followed him _beyond_ her manor, which honestly _terrified_ Snatcher. She'd never done this before, never. There was no _way_ she came for the kid – she hadn't left her manor for anything in _centuries_ , how would him stealing the kid back change _that_?!

In the cage above him, the kid screeched, rocking it this way and that, not stopping even as Snatcher soared off.

This was _his_ forest and _his_ brat, the Queen would go back into her manor and continue mindlessly wandering the place, leaving him and his subjects _alone_.

.

 **7.**

Snatcher could see with ease where the Queen was, where she'd gone. The witch left a froze trail behind her, a bright slash through his otherwise dark forest, headed straight for the arena where the kid was kept.

It was _strange,_ though, seeing her in the light. She was shadowy and hunched over, and with an amount of disgusted amusement he could tell that even now she tried her damnedest to stay as beautiful as possible.  
Under the shadows and magic her hair was smooth and well-kept, her dress patched in places, proving she wasn't totally gone. A shame. He would have liked to know that one day she'd just collapse under herself.

Magic erupted in his hands as he drew close, hissing and yelling at her to get the hell out of his forest, Vanessa responding in kind, hissing in that twisted voice of hers that he'd stolen something of hers, other things that he didn't listen to but knew amounted to her demanding he come back and stay, but loaded with anger and possessiveness he was still ashamed he'd never noticed until it was too late.

A small screeching behind him that was slowly coming closer and closer.  
 _The kid_.

"Damn it kid _get back!_ " But she didn't listen, charging past him and landing smack between him and the Queen. Screeching, screaming, _demanding_ he leave her be, don't touch her or he'll regret it. More out of shock than actually wanting to, he stopped. The magic faded from his hands, and he drifted a few feet backwards as the Queen, the woman he'd only known to be infinitely cruel, resumed moving forwards and with an almost uncharacteristic gentleness, scooped up the changed and twisted child between them.  
Turning on her heels, the queen slowly began moving in a direction that Snatcher _knew_ was towards her manor.

The damn witch had _stolen_ the kid from him. Not just physically, but mentally. Sure, he had her soul, but what use was _that_ now? Contractually, the kid was _his_.  
Fury, complete and blinding, ran through him as the icy pair headed back towards the manor. She'd stolen the kid, ravaged his forest, and terrified probably more than half the residents into scattering who _knew_ where.

To him, this was as much a call to war as any. That kid was _his_ and if she thought she could steal the brat from him with a little magic, she was _dead wrong_.


End file.
